Hardly Platonic

Chapter 9

"Makoto?" Yahiro's smile slipped.

"Yeah." Hanae looked at Yahiro, puzzled. 'What? Does he know her?'

"So you..are close to this person..?"

"Well, we're together most of the time. Why?"

Yahiro gave a half-smile as he shook his head. He muttered something under his breath.

Hanae lifted an eyebrow. 'Nevermind.' She shrugged it off thinking that it was probably nothing.

After that, Yahiro did not talk much along their walk to the university.

.....

The next day, which was the evening before the get-together party started, Makoto went to Hanae's room as they had already planned to go there together.

"Hanae, why not wear this skirt?" Makoto held up a white skirt.

"Hmm...I don't think so." Hanae glanced at Makoto. "Everyone's going to wear pants anyway. I don't want to stand out."

"Why not?" Makoto smirked. "Who knows? You might find yourself a special someone?"

Hanae looked at Makoto from head to toe with dull eyes. "I don't want to listen to the person who wears a simple T-shirt with jeans. Why don't you try to find yourself one before telling me to do so."

"Nah, I'm not ready for commitment." Makoto took out candy from her pocket and popped it into her mouth. "Plus, I don't plan on getting one soon."

Coming from a humble family with four younger siblings, Amane Makoto had always been an idealist who aimed to graduate with top scores and landed herself a good job. It was not that she was not interested, she was afraid that her performance would drop if she got herself into relationships.

"Good to know that we're on the same page." Hanae put on a brown jacket since it seemed like it would be cold tonight. "Should we go now? The next bus is in another 10 minutes."

.....

"There's a lot of people inside already." Makoto said as she peeked into the window.

"Really? But we're only 5 minutes late."

"Let's just quietly enter and find ourselves empty seats."

They both crept into the restaurant and stealthily sat at the closest table away from the loud crowd. Hanae thought that it was a relief that the party had started and people were so busy talking and laughing that they did not notice them. Another two people were also sitting with them.

"Hi, I'm Hanae. I think we're in the same class for Psychology." Hanae decided to start a conversation with the girl sitting across from her to break the awkwardness at the table. Thankfully, the girl was friendly enough to chat with.

As Hanae attentively talked to her new friend, she heard the sound of the door opening followed by the commotion from the crowded table.

"Seniors shouldn't be late Nakamura!"

"Sorry, everyone!" Nakamura raised his hand.

"Who's that guy next to you?"

"He's cute!"

"Shut up! You already have a boyfriend."

When Nakamura introduced his friend, Hanae was stunned. She almost turned her head when she heard the name and voice of a familiar person. She did not want to make it obvious that she was looking at him so she slowly peeked at the table.

"!!" She quickly looked away. 'What is he doing here?'

Standing across her table was Kiyoshi Yahiro. His calm and friendly demeanor along with his looks made it easy for people to befriend him and let him join the party despite him, not being from the department.

'I better hide from him.' Hanae bent her head and grabbed a chicken wing. She was relieved that her back was facing Kiyoshi.

"Sorry, as I was saying..." She stopped talking when she realized her friend was staring at her back. 'Don't tell me..' She squeezed her eyes shut.

"Hey, Asahina."

Hanae sighed inwardly as she forced a smile and slowly turned her face towards Yahiro. "Hey, I didn't know you're coming."

"Yeah, my friend from this department invited me to join the party." Yahiro softened his smile.

"I see..." Hanae looked away. "Still the center of a group since high school huh?"

Yahiro chuckled. "Nah, what can I say, the crowds love me."

"Not me though." Hanae let out a small laugh. "Go back to your table. People are looking my way."

"But I want to talk with you. You rejected my lunch offer, remember?"

Hanae noticed some people from the table where he came from were glancing and talking about them. She could already imagine the misunderstanding that had arisen about them.

"Let's talk next time, alright?" Hanae looked at Yahiro's eyes hoping that he got the message.

Yahiro smiled. "It's a promise then."

Hanae felt like she had fallen into his trap but she was too tired to mind about it.

Yahiro changed his attention towards Makoto. "Sorry for the late introduction. I'm Kiyoshi, and you are..?"

"Amane Makoto. Just call me Makoto, Hanae's friend is also a friend of mine."

Yahiro paused. "Oh...so you're Makoto."

"Do you know me?"

"Ah, no...Asahina told me about you." He touched his mouth as a smile crept across his face.

"I hope she didn't badmouth me." Makoto glared jokingly at Hanae.

"It's the opposite actually." He smiled brightly as his mood lifted. "She said that you're a good friend of hers that she's often together with."